Catching the Edge

Synopsis

Catching the Edge is an essayistic immersion into the psychological landscape of mountaineering, exploring the elusive moment when physical endurance, fear, and determination converge at the limits of human experience.

Filmed from the perspective of the climber, the work follows solitary journeys across glaciers, steep snow slopes, exposed ridges, and ice-covered mountains. Rather than documenting the achievement of summits, the installation lingers on the rhythms of movement, breath, and hesitation. Long passages of footsteps cutting through snow, the persistent tension of a climbing rope, and the overwhelming scale of the alpine environment gradually draw the viewer into an embodied experience where every step carries consequence.

As exhaustion accumulates and the mountain reveals its indifference, external action gives way to an internal dialogue. Time begins to stretch and contract, fear becomes inseparable from clarity, and the landscape transforms into a mirror of the climber’s mental state. Through deep-focus imagery, amplified bodily sound, and an essayistic structure that privileges reflection over narrative resolution, the installation invites audiences to inhabit the fragile space between vulnerability and resolve. It asks what draws us toward experiences that expose our limits, and whether moments of profound uncertainty can reveal a deeper sense of freedom.

Artist statement

I started making Catching the Edge because I wanted to understand the human need to seek edge experiences. Climbing has never been about reaching a summit for me. It is about the rare moments when fear, concentration, and physical effort come together, stripping away everything else. Those experiences have changed how I see myself, and I wanted to explore this experience through the conduit of expanded cinema and installation.

This is not a documentary about mountaineering. Rather, an immersive experience focused on rhythms: footsteps in snow, breathing, the pull of a rope, and the overwhelming scale of the landscape. I wanted the mountain to feel less like a backdrop and more like a presence that shapes the climber’s state of mind.

I chose a two-channel format with floating glass screens where each screen represents a climber which is actually the same entity. The screens are separated by a void, and glass as a surface of projection pushes the medium of snow and transparent ice beyond the edges of the screen. The two screens communicate with ropes, slithering across the snow and ice, connecting momentarily through this void and then disconnecting again, imparting a sense of individuality as well as dependence.

The film is intentionally slow and observational. I am interested in creating space for viewers to notice small changes in movement, sound, and attention. By eliminating dialogue, the audience becomes more aware of their own body as they experience this installation.

Ultimately, Catching the Edge is less about climbing mountains than about confronting our own limits. It comes from a personal curiosity about why we seek experiences that are difficult, uncertain, and sometimes frightening and what they can reveal about who we are.